Latest Zimbabwe News Summaries

The fuel situation has continued to worsen as demand increases towards the festive season with the supply remaining erratic. Fuel prices have marginally increased in the country while in neighbouring South Africa the prices are expected to go down. Most service stations have no fuel at all, with those few having the fuel in stock rationing the amount sold to individuals.

A Daily News survey carried out in Harare revealed that service stations had long winding queues similar to the ones seen during the 2008 hyper-inflationary era. In an interview with the Daily News on Sunday, President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s spokesperson, George Charamba said

Fuel consumption is doubling in the country. Those in the know explain the aspect in two forms — the expansion of the economy and comparatively cheap fuel prices which make one seek to drive to work rather than use public transport.

However, unnamed sources who spoke to the Daily News had a different perspective

Government is in arrears on its payments, and so suppliers are refusing to release the fuel until it has settled what it owes. What is disappointing is that when the government made a deal with one of the fuel companies here, authorities appeared to have relaxed — delaying paying suppliers in the process.

You can’t gamble with fuel … the fact is that payments should be made in advance. With all that is happening, we are likely to see even longer queues before things stabilise. The problem is also worsening at a wrong time as demand tends to peak at this time of the year. We are hoping that Zim will have the requisite stocks soon for both the festive season and normal use.